Rajvi H Mehta
03 August 2007
Scientific progress is made by the minute contributions of multiple scientists. It is these small contributions that lead to gigantic scientific progress. The current status of assisted reproductive technologies (ART) can also be attributed to the work done by hundreds of scientists from all over the world. Some names may be forgotten but some names would remain engraved in the history of ART.
One such name is that of Dame Anne McLaren who died at the age of 80 in a car crash on July 7, 2007. A leading mammalian geneticist, she made pioneering contributions to the field of development biology which ultimately led to IVF. She herself started her career in biological sciences under the tutorship of stalwarts like Peter Medawar and JBS Haldane.
Her research, primarily restricted to mice, included all areas of fundamental importance, such as hormonal control of ovulation, oocyte transfer, placental and foetal growth, and interactions between embryo and uterus during implantation. In 1958, working with John Biggers at University College London, she achieved the first successful birth of mice that had been grown in vitro for 24 hours. It is this work that provided a better understanding of early embryonic development ultimately leading to the birth of Louise Brown. Her later work focused on the development of primordial germ cells.
Her work was not restricted to the laboratory and played an important role in defining the ethical and legal implication of ART. As a member of the Warnock Committee she helped to lay the groundwork for the Human Fertilisation and Embryology Act of 1990, which served as a model for similar acts in other parts of the world.
IVF.NET pays its tribute to this doyenne of ART.
Professor Dame Anne Laura Dorinthea McLaren, DBE D.Phil. FRS FRCOG (April 26, 1927 - July 7, 2007)
| 
![](javascript:OpenImages("2864","2864.jpeg"))
3.00 (out of 5)